Vista Health System has been recognized with the Patient Safety Award by Community Health Systems (CHS), one of the nation's leading operators of general acute-care hospitals. The organization's affiliates include Vista Health System and 135 other hospitals in 29 states.

Presented at the organization's annual Chiefs of Staff meeting, John Devaney, M.D., president-elect of the Medical Staff of Vista Health System, accepted the award on behalf of the hospital. Dr. Devaney practices family medicine with offices in Antioch, Ill.

"I'm proud of Vista's commitment to patient safety at every level including our administration, our clinical staff and our physicians," said Dr. Devaney. "I'm honored to accept this award on their behalf as we strive to offer the best and safest health care."

The Patient Safety Award recognizes hospitals that have consistently achieved improvements in quality of care and patient safety. Vista currently is completing its second year of intense focus on High Reliability Safety to prevent errors and harm. In 2013, Vista implemented an action plan based on assessments conducted in 2012 as a pilot hospital for CHS.

"Patient safety is our top priority at Vista Health System, and we are committed to implementing the best practices available to safely care for our patients," said Barbara Martin, President and CEO of Vista Health System. "Each quarter, we've rolled out evidence-based tactics and tools to all levels of the organization to prevent errors from happening."

Some of those tactics include: team checking and team coaching; asking safety questions and verifying and validating concerns before proceeding with work; re-focusing on tasks when interrupted or in risk-sensitive situations by pausing and re-grouping before proceeding; and, ensuring effective communication every time by repeating back and reading back orders and using an SBAR (Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation) approach for handoffs or decision-making.

Vista participates in the Health Engagement Network with the Illinois Hospital Association and has reduced hospital-acquired conditions such as falls, skin breakdown, blood clots, medication errors and more. Vista also participated in Project BOOST with Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine to improve transitions from the hospital to the next level of care and prevent frequent readmissions.

The terms "Community Health Systems" or the "organization" used in this press release refer to Community Health Systems Professional Services Corporation, unless otherwise stated.